Sprint Announces Airave Femtocell

Sprint has announced it plans to offer Samsung's Airave femtocell, a way to boost signal coverage indoors in homes and offices...along with an unlimited calling option.

Sprint has announced it will soon be offering Samsung’s Airave femtocell signal booster as a way for Sprint customers to get improved reception inside homes and offices…and to make the deal sweeter, Sprint will also be offering an unlimited calling plan to go along with it. The Airave is the first commercially available femtocell—effectively a miniature cell phone tower that works with any Sprint phone (but not Nextel phones) and a broadband Internet connection to improve in-building mobile phone coverage.

“Customers are using their wireless phones at home more than ever, and with the Airave, Sprint is making it even more convenient for customers to rely on their Sprint phones while in their home or office,” said Sprint’s senior VP for product and technology development Kevin Packingham, in a statement.

Sprint is billing he Airave as a way to get better coverage without buying a new phone, with the Airave offering about 5,000 square feet of coverage by creating a low power licensed spectrum CDMA network. Sprint claims the Airave is more reliable than unlicensed wireless solutions like Wi-Fi wireless networking. Calls that are started via the Airave transition to Sprint’s mobile network when users leave the Airave coverage area.

The Airave goes on sale August 17 for $99.99. The optional Airave unlimited calling plan will offer unlimited incoming and outgoing calls and nationwide long distance costs $4.99 a month on top of a user’s normal wireless subscription plan; users without an unlimited calling plan can get unlimited in-home calling for an additional $10 per month for individuals and $20 per month for families.

The Airave gives Sprint a way to let its customers get better use of its phones when they’re at known indoor locations—mobile signals are notoriously weak inside many buildings and homes, prompting users to have to go outside (or even lean out windows) to talk on their cell phones. The Airave also lets Sprint compete with T-Mobile’s AtHome service, which uses Wi-Fi enabled handsets for in-house/in-office calling, with calls transitioning to T-Mobile’s network when callers move out of range.